Lawyer: Rosa Parks artifacts sold for $4.5M

The sale was made to a foundation run by Howard G. Buffett, the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Howard Buffett confirmed the purchase Thursday but declined to disclose the price. Lawrence Pepper, a lawyer for Parks' heirs, told The Associated Press it was $4.5 million, with 12.5 percent going to an auction house.

Pepper says 20 percent of the balance goes to Parks' relatives. The rest will go to the Rosa & Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development in Detroit.

Parks became a pioneer in the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955.